Extending First Amendment protection against compelling citizens to endorse ideas they find objectionable appears to depend primarily upon whether the idea or objection falls within Christian doctrine. Almost a year ago, I pointed out that modern religious liberty doctrine is grossly unbalanced in a way that favors religion, the Christian religion in particular , at the great expense of everyone else’s free conscience protection. Unfortunately, in the time since I wrote that piece the unbalance has rapidly increased. Indeed, the last year has made it painfully obvious that the single greatest factor for determining the result in any free conscience objection case is whether the objecting party is doing so because of their Christian faith. Moreover, if your free conscience objection against government compelling citizens to pay for or otherwise endorse ideas they find objectionable is based on an opposition to government compelling an overtly Christian idea, your free conscience objection is guaranteed to lose. This current state of affairs in free conscience liberty doctrine meant it was rather easy for me to successfully predict the result in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association case, otherwise known as the Bladensburg Cross case. All one has to do in […]
